I keep a 30 lb bag of dog food in my van in case I meet a stray dog who would like a meal. This has led to the privilege of encountering these sweet dogs:

Then I met Bella!

Bella was living in a park on top of a mountain in the Golija Nature Preserve. She happily ate the food I set our for her and then joined me on a walk. I decided to spend the night in the park and Bella stayed near the van. The next day as I was leaving, she ran after my van! I was heading down the mountain when it started to rain, and that was followed by strong winds. I just wanted to get down the mountain safely, yet all I could think about was the little white dog getting soaked while she looked down the road.

I went to the first town and found a vet who explained what I needed in order to take her with me: a microchip, vaccines, and a rabies shot - and I would have to stay in Serbia for 21 days. I had friends to visit in Macedonia, and didn’t want to stay that long in Serbia, so we agreed that I would need to ‘smuggle’ her into Macedonia and could do the rabies shot there.

Then I was off to find a store where I could buy dog food, bed, towel, halter and leash. I needed to be prepared to invite her into my home. I went back up the mountain to pick her up. As soon as I pulled in, she was there and she let me pick her up to put her in the van. She let me dry her off and she quickly settled in to sleep. I named her Bella because she is a beautiful and charming. I later learned that Bella means ‘white’ in Serbian.

I wanted to spend some time with Bella before crossing the border so we continued to Tara National Park and then Kopaonik National Park where we hiked and learned to understand each other. Bella looks like a Pulin herding dog. Their characteristics are: “highly intelligent, loyal, energetic and independent-minded & sometimes stubborn”. I found her to be very sweet, loving, playful and smart.

The border ‘smuggle’ never happened - no one asked anything about my adorable dog!

Then I got a job!

Once in Macedonia, I took Bella to a vet where she got the microchip, rabies, other vaccines, a parasite treatment, and her dog passport.

We spent several days at Lake Ohrid, swimming and visiting with dog lovers and dogs. We stopped at Lake Prespa where I met a woman sheepherder and Bella played on the beach. I decided to go to Bitola to do some more hiking in Pelister National Park and to visit Marija and Goran who live there and told me about the Galichik wedding. I went back to Camp Ambassador, which is close to the park and town, and where I could do laundry.

After two days at the campground Toni and Natasa, the owners, asked if I would help host the campground for two weeks while they traveled to their property in Ljubljana. I was joined by Toni’s brother, Gjorgji and his wife Julijana.

What a fun time we had! We took care of guests, cleaned, ate good food, celebrated my birthday and shared stories. We traded time off where I would take outings to the park and hike with Bella, or to have a picnic with Goran and Marija and Gjorgji and Julijana would take day trips to Greece.

While Gjorgji is a well known actor, he doubled as the Handyman, Pool Boy and Bartender at the campground. Julijana is a Philosophy professor and doubled as our Noticer, Insight Specialist and Glue. Bella was our Guest Greeter. I planted flower and greens gardens, met interesting guests and found the van of my dreams!

It was a magical time. Grateful!